Uncanny X-Men, The (1981 series) #253

In Cairo, Illinois, the citizens work together to build a levee to combat the monstrous downpour that’s already claimed other areas of the city. Unsure whether their efforts will be effective or not, they suddenly spot a young girl standing on top of the levee. A huge crack of thunder knocks the girl from the levee where she’s picked up and taken to an ambulance. As the ambulance drives off, the citizens of Cairo are stunned to see that the storm seems to be breaking, as sunlight peeks through the clouds after days of non-stop rain! The girl is rushed to the E.R. at Cairo Memorial Hospital where the doctors don’t know what to make of her, finally revealed as Storm, turned into a child! Meanwhile, back in Australia, some of the Reavers try to fix up the flooded base, while Donald Pierce works to rebuild the cyborg parts of the more damaged Reavers. Pierce threatens Pretty Boy after being provoked, getting interrupted by Lady Deathstrike on the security cams. She claims that she hasn’t been able to locate Wolverine even after making a full sweep and points out there are too many variables for where he could have disappeared to. She cuts communications, and it’s revealed that she did indeed find Wolverine and Jubilee, spying them through the scope of a long-range gun. However, she decides to let them go, stating that this would not be the honorable death a foe like Wolverine deserves!

Back at Cairo Memorial Hospital, the nurse and doctor that first attended to Storm are shocked to discover that she doesn’t show up on their video monitors! Not only that, her telemetry scans show flatlines across the board, as if she isn’t there! Both of them check to make sure they aren’t going crazy, and with all of the tests done on her useless, they conclude that she might be a mutant, and wonder what they’re going to do about it. Unbeknownst to them, Storm heard this exchange! Across the pond, at Muir Isle, Magneto has a heated meeting with Moira MacTaggert. Moira accuses him of forgetting what he promised Charles, that he’d look after the New Mutants and carry on his dream. Magneto admits that he never should have agreed and says that he has higher responsibilities that must take precedence. When Moira gets testy, he restrains her, and Callisto, acting as her bodyguard. Magneto plans to return to his old ways, to ensure that mutants not be lost in the war he’s sure is coming. Moira states that she’s concerned about him losing himself once more, and he insinuates that he plans to keep all of the attention on himself so that Moira can handle things more diplomatically without undue attention! Outside, Magneto says farewell to Banshee, who reminds Magneto that he doesn’t have to do things alone. Once Magneto has departed, Moira begins to plan to get the school’s technology squared away while securing Muir Isle against possible attack, fearing Magneto may be right.

Back in Australia, the Reavers engage in some target practice, while mocking Pretty Boy and the bare bones body Pierce constructed for him. Pretty Boy swears he’ll get the last laugh as elsewhere, Pierce consults Lady Deathstrike about where Wolverine might have headed. On Muir Isle, Banshee and Moira intercept a distress call coming from a freighter in the midst of a nearby storm. Banshee recognizes the caller as Polaris and wonders what she’s doing there. Moira expresses caution, given Polaris was recently possessed but she assures that it’s her and Banshee decides to fly out to help her. On the freighter, the crew savagely fight each other over who gets to have Polaris to themselves, acting almost possessed! A crewman is then shocked when Polaris grows in size, just as she had in the Savage Land, and shoots at her, causing her to tumble backwards right through the wall! The rest of the crew pile on her and she swats them away with her newfound super-strength, as the ship begins to split in two! Polaris hangs onto one half of the ship as best she can, until she gets flung off, only to get caught mid-air by Banshee! As they fly off, Polaris says she has no idea what happened but can’t help but think it’s her fault!

Changing locations yet again to the lighthouse hideout of Excalibur, off the coast of Britain, Amanda Sefton arrives looking for Nightcrawler. She finds the place empty except for Alysande Stuart, commanding officer of the Weird Happenings Organization and ally of Excalibur, who tells her that Excalibur have vanished! Back in America, in a valley near Yellowstone, Forge sits in his cabin and meditates. He experiences a vision of a dirty saloon run by Amahl Farouk and recognizes the woman encaged there to be Storm, as she suddenly turns from an adult to a child! Farouk challenges Forge to a test of mental strength, and when Farouk starts to get the upper hand, Forge punches him with his cybernetic hand. This knocks Forge from the vision, and results in his metal hand getting destroyed in real life, but confirms to him that Storm is alive, and in danger! At Cairo Memorial, the head doctor wrestles with what to do about Storm, and ends up calling the man who initially sent Storm there, now possessed, who says that they’ll come for Storm in the morning, all of which is overheard by Storm herself! Finally, back in Australia, Donald Pierce has determined that Wolverine is mostly likely headed for Muir Isle and orders his Reavers to destroy the island and kill everyone there! To be continued!